Obama Touts Progress Increasing U.S. Exports

Six months into the five-year goal of doubling U.S. exports, President Obama today convened a meeting of the President’s Export Council to tout progress of the National Export Initiative.

“Despite some strong economic headwinds this year, we've already seen some progress,” Obama said from the East Room of the White House, “Obviously, working off a low baseline, given the crisis last year, exports are expected to be up, but we're very pleased to see that they're up 18 percent, to where they were a year ago. And manufacturing exports are up 20 percent. And that's helping put a lot of our people back to work.”

The president said his goal, originally laid out in this year’s State of the Union address, of doubling US exports within 5 years, in achievable.

“When I made this initial announcement, some were skeptical. But the truth of the matter is, is that if we are increasing our exports by 14, 15 percent per year, something that is achievable, then we can meet our goal.”

Put simply, the president said that more exports mean eventually more jobs.

“The more American companies export, the more they produce. And the more they produce, the more people they hire. And that means more jobs, good jobs that often pay as much as 15 percent more than average.”

The National Export Initiative was created in March though an Executive Order, as was originally proposed in the president’s State of the Union address this year. In July the president announced members of the council – a group that includes business and labor leaders who will offer their “unfiltered advice and expertise” on how best to promote exports.